So who’s developing for the PlayStation 4?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock with no internet access for the past 24 hours, you’ll know that yesterday Sony announced the PlayStation 4 at a special media event in New York City.

Being the extremely kind and helpful folks that we are at PS3 Attitude, we thought we’d take the time to discuss all the studios we can think of who are likely developing games for the PS4 right this second. This is all of the facts we can find, a spattering of speculation and a little bit of our own guesswork.

Before we begin, we should point out that Sony has already announced that pretty much all third-party studios have pledged their support to the PS4. In theory that means anyone could currently be working on a game for it. Therefore, our aim here is to be as accurate as possible, only citing developers who we’d bet money are up to their eyeballs in next-generation goodness.

It makes sense to start with the developers who actually presented their games at the meeting last night, which included exciting new projects from both first- and third-party studios.

The developers supporting the PS4

Arguably the biggest of the announced games was the incredible-looking Killzone: Shadow Fall, developed by Sony’s own [Guerrilla Games]. The Netherlands-based studio has been very quiet in the two years since the release of Killzone 3, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise to hear they’ve been working on a PS4 Killzone game.

Likewise, it made sense that [Evolution Studios] were also working on something for PS4, but the question was whether it’s something MotorStorm-related. It turns out it wasn’t, and instead the studio revealed Driveclub, a new racing IP that’s all about team-based gameplay and online social interactivity.

[SCEJapan Studio] is one of the company’s largest developers, so you can almost guarantee that they’re working on several next-gen projects right now. Only one was announced last night though; Knack, an action platformer about a strange robot-like creature who can change his form at will. Japan Studio is also home to [Team Ico], so could The Last Guardian now be a PS4 title?

Killzone: Shadow Fall from Guerrilla Games

The last of Sony’s studios to reveal their new game was their most recent acquisition. [Sucker Punch Productions] presented inFamous: Second Son, which looks to be a spiritual successor to the first two inFamous games, rather than a direct sequel.

Of course, videogame consoles are nothing without great third-party support, so it’s encouraging to see independent developers and publishers put their weight behind the PS4.

We were all hoping to see more from Watch Dogs by [Ubisoft Montreal] and Destiny by [Bungie], and Sony didn’t disappoint on either count. Watch Dogs was easily the most interesting game of E3 2012 and still looks razor sharp, and Destiny definitely has the potential to revolutionise the first-person shooter genre.

Watch Dogs from Ubisoft Montreal

More of a surprise was the incredible reveal trailer for Deep Down from [Capcom], and the huge news that [Blizzard Entertainment] has partnered with Sony to bring Diablo III to both PS4 and PS3. Not only that, but The Witness (developed by Jonathan Blow’s new studio [Thekla, Inc]) will be a timed console exclusive for the PlayStation 4.

Then there are the developers who had footage to show, even if they weren’t quite ready to reveal their actual game(s). These included Japanese giant [Square Enix], who mentioned Final Fantasy; [Media Molecule], who presented an intriguing (and slightly confusing) PlayStation Move demo; [Quantic Dream], who showed a ridiculously realistic facial character model; and [Epic Games], who have evidently got the Unreal Engine 4 running on the PS4.

It’s also worth mentioning that a number of game designers also appeared in a montage video during the conference. The many recognisable faces included the likes of Tim Schafer of [Double Fine Productions], Kazunori Yamauchi of [Polyphony Digital] and Dylan Cuthbert of [Q-Games]. Could some or all of these guys be working on games for PS4? We’d bet on it.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 from Ubisoft Montpelier

Since the meeting, Polish developer [CD Projekt RED] has confirmed that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is coming to the PS4. PlayStation fans have so far missed out on The Witcher series, so the next game in the franchise is definitely something to look forward to. It will also be interesting to see whether the studio’s other announced title, Cyberpunk 2077, eventually makes it to PS4 too.

And that’s pretty much everything we know for a fact at this stage. So now we move into the altogether murkier area of rumour and speculation.

One of the games everyone was half-expecting to see last night was Star Wars 1313, in development at [LucasArts]. The release platforms haven’t yet been announced, but the footage shown so far is well beyond current-gen consoles, so this is almost a dead cert for PS4.

Star Wars 1313 from LucasArts

Similarly, [BioWare] are yet to announce which consoles Dragon Age III: Inquisition will be launching on. However, considering that no footage has been shown as of yet, it’s extremely unlikely that it will release as part of the current generation.

Let’s also not forget Beyond Good & Evil 2, which has been rumoured for over five years, and is widely believed to be in development at [Ubisoft Montpelier]. We’re now approaching the 10th anniversary of the first game, so an official announcement of the sequel would be awesome.

Finally, there are the many developers whose current projects are still under wraps, but all the signs point to them working on something for PS4. Surely [Infinity Ward] will bring this year’s Call of Duty to the upcoming console, and likewise [EA DICE] with Battlefield 4? Are DICE also developing Mirror’s Edge 2? And could [Bethesda Game Studios] be working on a next-gen Elder Scrolls or Fallout? We’d say it’s likely rather than just possible.

And then of course we have [Naughty Dog]. The California-based studio was only conspicuous by their absence during last night’s event (although co-president Evan Wells did turn up in the aforementioned developer montage). We guess all eyes will be on E3 for an Uncharted 4 reveal, then. After all, Sony must have left something to announce in June; right?